In his first sweeps month as Nightly News anchor Lester Holt gave the NBC broadcast its biggest July audience in 10 years, and its best in the A25-54 demo since 2013. Holt officially took over the show six weeks ago, but has been anchoring since February when Brian Williams stepped aside from the show.
Compared to July 2014, Nightly News is the only broadcast up in both viewers and the news demo: +1 percent and +6 percent, respectively. CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley is up the most in viewers (+5 percent) but is down -4 percent in the demo. ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir is up +4 percent in viewers and down -1 percent in the demo.
Numbers for July 2015 Sweep:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,904,000 | 7,504,000 | 6,387,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,913,000 | 1,818,000 | 1,423,000 |
NBC Nightly News also won last week, in both viewers and the demo, but was down -1 percent in both measurements vs. last year. World News Tonight saw the most growth: up +8 percent in viewers and up +2 percent in the demo. The CBS Evening News was up +4 percent in viewers — cutting its competitive position with Nightly News by 310,000 viewers — but was down -6 percent in the demo.
Numbers for the week of July 27, 2015:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,827,000 | 7,573,000 | 6,103,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,927,000 | 1,809,000 | 1,402,000 |